The New Year brings a time for reflection, and it’s very timely since our time with Tim and Stacey has come to an end. (I used the word “time” three, I mean four times now five times, now six….very proud of that.)  The Wills will be guest blogging soon on the Thailand adventure.  

Over the last few weeks while traveling with Tim and Stacey the saying “why not” was repeated over and over by Tim when we attempted to make decisions on what to do.  Want to go to the beach, “why not” want to  eat, “why not” want to go for a hike, “why not” so it has me thinking.  Why is such a great word, just blurt it out in your next conversation like rainman and see magic happen.  Going way back into the corporate brain waves I now remember the power of the word “why”, books have been written about this word and a problem solving approach that gets to the root of any cause is to ask “why” five times in a row to someone after each response they give you.  Wow now my brain hurts, but why:)

When we first began this adventure we came up with our “why” reasons we wanted to do this.  We posted this on the blog.  But “why” blog at all? As virgin travelers we figured it was just the thing to do, but we were still a little uncomfortable about it.  Who are we to write about what we are doing? Why would anyone care? On the flip side, anyone that wants the world to hear their views has a blog these days, it’s the easy method of reaching people in mass via the internet.  However within the first week and now almost six months into this journey the “why” factor is crystal clear to us.  So, like our last “why” blog I’ll use the David Letterman top 11 approach to explain why we blog:

11. We are too old to tweet

10. Lots of good feedback from friends about them feeling like they are traveling with us.  Those of you who mentioned this might not realize how much that means, the road can be lonely:)

9. Friends have told us that they are using the blog to teach their kids about the world.  We just think that it is so neat.  My little sister read the blog to my 6 year old niece, later in the day there was a small issue and she attempted to teach my niece and asked, “So, what have you learned today” (Hoping my niece could understand how her actions affected other people.)   Her reply,  “tortises live to be 170 years old” which was from one of our first blogs on the Galapogas.  Tortises was not the topic that my sister was dealing with, but at least my niece learned something that day!

8. We developed a sense of duty, once a real passion for travel set in we wanted to be a connector (Malcolm Gladwells book called Blink named it) providing information to connect people with something we cared about in hopes of people wanting to pick up the torch…

7. I realized how much I enjoy writing, the grammar is terrible but that’s what you get from a C student.  I know Mom, I should have applied myself more.  

6. We quickly realized how necessary it was to memorialize our travels since we are experiencing so much so quickly and didn’t want to loose any of the memories.  And it’s the little things that make the adventure so special, but yet because they are little (in time) they can easily be forgotten.  For example, going to Bangkok is not what’s special, being stopped on the street by a random guy who ends up ushering you around and paying for things just because he thinks and I quote him, “America #1” is.  Now, that’s special and not in the Saturday night live skit of the church lady special.  

5. Much easier to express yourself when you can think and use the RIGHT words, well “correct” is probably the right word to use:). 

4. Makes us feel connected, especially since we can’t see people and were really suprised how difficult calling was.  You know the old analogies, put a man on the moon but can’t…make a phone call.  We’ve got Skype, FaceTime and more recently local SIM cards but WiFi and reception has been sketchy, not to mention the time difference (currently a 12 hour delta).

3. We are just sharing, so take it with a grain of salt.  The emotions and feelings really have fluctuated throughout this trip.  100% all positive in the end but realizing what happens on the ground in many of the third world countries is tough to swallow. However, we want to share this with everyone whilst not coming across as complaining or judging because we aren’t.   This is very difficult to balance especially in writing so bear with us and give the blog the benefit of the doubt. 

2. Because I am stupid, and stupid is as stupid does…just like Forest Gump.  He likes to run, but I like to write.

1. We want to contribute more and consume less and blogging is a start.  The blogging community says that a “blogger” is a “producer” instead of a consumer.  Maybe a stretch, but close enough. 

So we blog for many reasons, all very important to us obviously since we are writing the blog, and hopefully you are getting something out of it as well.  

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”

           Jawaharlal Nuhru-first Prime Minister of India

We figured out a way to map out our trip, man we are disorganized after looking at this. If the link doesn’t work we will fix it once we get to a better internet connection.

Click here to TrackMyTour!

A few random pics